The House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture has summoned the Management of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Kaduna, to clear issues on the bank’s inability to recover the N81 billion loan disbursed to farmers under the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP).
The Committee gave the order on Friday, when it paid an oversight visit to the headquarters of the bank in Kaduna on Friday.
Chairman of the Committee, Muntari Dandutse, who led other members directed the bank management to submit all relevant documents related to the anchor borrowers programme to it for scrutiny.
Mr Dandutse said the documents should include the total amount disbursed to farmers and the number of farmers that benefited from the loans.
He said the bank should also submit its audited accounts and the amount it recovered from the farmers.
The committee, according to him, would need to have access to the bank’s list of beneficiaries and defaulters, and advice on measures to be taken to recover the loans.
Members of the committee had during the visit expressed concern that beneficiaries of the Anchor Borrower Programme had complained to the committee on bank’s alleged poor handling of the ABP funds.
The committee said it received over 30 petitions from farmers against the bank of its inability to properly manage the CBN funds released for the program.
Mr Dandutse, however, said the committee in particular and the National Assembly was determined to engage stakeholders including CBN on measures to recover outstanding loans from the N81 billion said to have been disbursed.
“N81 billion can change the lives of Nigerian farmers in different value chains, so we cannot allow it go unrecovered, as this government is determined to ensure probity and transparency in all conducts.
“The bank should appear before it along with all its documents of debtors, as well as those who have applied for loans and did not get,” he said.
Zainab Gimba, representing Bama/Ngala/Kalabalge federal constituency of Borno State, had raised concern that farmers from the North-East were not happy with the manner the bank handled the anchor borrowers funds.
Mrs Gimba listed commercial farmers including “Dili Daru Farms, Gorea Farms, Shiltam Farms and Mohammed Dogo among those who expressed concern with the way the bank handled the funds.
She said the farmers had complained to her office and the Committee that they were finding it difficult to access loans under ABP from the Agriculture bank.
Mrs Gimba said BOA had slowed the federal government’s efforts towards resettling the people North-East affected by insurgency, through Agriculture.
She urged the Bank to go back to its core mandate and urgently respond to the financial need of farmers, especially those affected by the crisis in the north east region.
However, the Managing Director of the bank, Kabir Adamu, while addressing the committee disclosed that farmers in the North-East region were major beneficiaries of the loans.
Mr Adamu said it was a deliberate effort of the bank that ensured that farmers from the North East region benefited more from the ABP than any other part of the country.
“It is a not true to say that the BOA has not been releasing funds to the farmers in the North-East. Many of the farmers took the loan in billions of naira under the ABP and refused to pay back.
“We are currently collaborating with the National Refugees Commission to help resettle those that have been displaced through Agriculture.
“Last year we made donation of rice, blankets and other materials to support those affected by the crisis in the region.
“We have also signed an MoU with the North East Development Commission and agreed on key areas of mechanisation and other forms of production to see how we can support them.
“On the issue of Anchor Borrower, so many people have taken loans and they have refused to pay,” Mr Adamu said.
He said the bank had suffered in silence for long from poor recovery from beneficiaries, while CBN on the other hand, had often stampeded the Bank to disburse more money to farmers.
The Committee, however, asked the bank management to appear before it on a date to be communicated to it.
(NAN)
I recently reach-me-down this locality to allot repiping service , and I couldn’t be happier with the results. The search was straightforward, and I appreciated the comprehensive profiles and patron reviews for each contractor. It made comparing options and reading about other clients’ experiences easy. The contractors I contacted were coax, trained, and offered competitive quotes. This site is a alien resource in behalf of anyone needing safe haven renew services. Warmly recommended payment its explicit interface and worth listings!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your detailed experience with us. We are truly delighted to hear that you had such a positive outcome using our platform to find repiping services. One of our key objectives at dutable.com is to make it easier for people to connect with reliable service providers by providing clear information, comprehensive profiles, and genuine reviews from past clients. It’s great to know that this approach made your search straightforward and allowed you to compare options with confidence.
We are equally pleased to hear that the contractors you reached out to were professional, well-trained, and able to provide competitive quotes. Feedback like yours reinforces the importance of maintaining a transparent and user-friendly interface while ensuring that the service providers listed are credible and trustworthy.
Your warm recommendation means a lot to us, and it will certainly inspire others in need of similar services to make use of the platform with confidence. Please feel free to continue engaging with us, and don’t hesitate to share your experiences in the future—we greatly value your input in helping us grow this community.
I was curious if you ever considered changing the layout of your blog?
Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people
could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of
text for only having one or 2 pictures. Maybe you could space it
out better?
There’s certainly a great deal to know about this topic. I
like all the points you made.
Thank you very much for your kind feedback. We are truly glad to know that you found the article insightful and that the points discussed were meaningful to you. At dutable.com, our aim is to break down important topics into clear, practical insights so that our readers not only gain knowledge but also feel confident applying what they have learned. Your comment reinforces the value of presenting information in a way that highlights different aspects of a subject, making it easier for readers to see the bigger picture.
You are absolutely right that there is always so much to know about this topic, and what we have shared only scratches the surface. We continuously research and update our content to ensure it remains relevant, accurate, and comprehensive. If there are any particular areas you would like us to explore in greater detail, please don’t hesitate to let us know—we always welcome suggestions from our readers.
Thank you once again for being part of our community. Your engagement encourages us to keep creating resources that are useful, clear, and reliable.